Shawn Hebert Final

Making a Shoe Ad

For the final project of the year we were tasked with designing a shoe in Illustrator a then using this to create an ad for it. It was similar to the cartoon we created in the previous project with the exception being that it was colored with gradient tool in Illustrator rather than with paint tools in photoshop. Mine turned out well enough, again like always with some parts stronger than others. A weaker point to start off would have to be how I handled the areas between sections of the shoe. What ended up happening is that some differently colored sections would have non matching borders that unrealistically stood out, this could have been fixed by just altering the color of the sections so they did not clash. A stronger aspect of the piece would be how the shoe was sectioned off, this ignoring borders. The shapes seem to flow like a real shoe and the overall shape works making the shoe itself look better. Some things could still be worked on while others are well enough as is.

Being not the first project in Illustrator anymore but still earlier in my use of it there were still some difficulties. After setting the initial shapes for the shoe it took a while to make sure that there were no gaps. This took a lot of finagling to make it still look good while also being solid. By contrast an easy part of the project was adding the stitching onto the shoe, all this required was to select the dashed line option and to draw a line where it was needed.

The objective of the project this time was to learn and use the gradient tool, this was used to make basically the whole body of the shoe. How it worked was we would need to make closed shapes with the pen tool and turning on fill with color using the gradient tool created the gradient effects visible in the above image of the shoe. All that aside I would still change a few things, one of these would be to use more layers when setting up shapes. When making the shoe off of an original image the work I did sometimes made it hard to see for later shapes, with more layers I could just switch them off and have a easier time.     

Cartoon of Me

For our first real project in Adobe Illustrator we had to create a cartoon of ourselves. How the project worked was using pencil and paper we would draw ourselves to use later as a model, afterwards we would take this and create an outline in illustrator. Once the outline was complete we would transfer it to photoshop where it was colored, shaded, and completed. All and all I think that my project turned out well enough, having both its stronger and weaker points. Picking the strongest aspect of the piece would definitely be the very general outline of the body I made in Illustrator. The proportions of the body are reminiscent of actual proportions and they don’t have too many rough edges like in real life. On the other hand in the fine details I more or less failed. Observing the claw like hands and the right elbow it just does not seem to fit negatively impacting the work.

Being the first project we’ve had in Illustrator some new difficulties were attached, also with photoshop being involved there was a familiar easy part of the project. In Illustrator using the pen tool for the first time to get decent lines for the outline of the project entailed a large amount of trial and error and redos making all around the most difficult part of the project. The easiest part of the project was, like said earlier, was in photoshop. To get the initial color of the cartoon all I needed to do was select a color and paint it where needed which did not take much effort or time making it very easy.

The objective of the project this time was to learn and utilize the pen tool, select tool, and direct select tool. The pen tool was used to create the lines observable in the cartoon , making the skeleton of the work almost. The select tool of the three was used the least but was still used. When I wanted to move the outline of the pen tool to get a better look at anything or anything else there it was. The direct select tool was heavily used. When I drew a line with the pen tool afterward I would use the direct select tool to select a segment and move it to the proper place to look good. Even though I think the cartoon turned out alright I would change a few things. The first change I would make are the detail errors I talked of earlier such as on the hands and arms.

Hybrid Animal

For our third to last project this year in Elements of Design we had to take parts from three animals and combine them into one new animal fusion. The new creature would have to look realistic, having well blended parts that fit and transition naturally, but could also combine animals that would immediately make a person question it due to odd part arrangements. For the project we were introduced to two new tools in photoshop, the stamp and healing brush tools. It was our objective to use these two tools to make the fusion look realistic. When it came to the stamp tool it was used often. In order for me to transplant the red panda head in the image onto the bird for example and do it accurately I would get the stamp from the panda image and on a new layer paint it on where it could blend realistically. I would go onto to do the same for some fur/feather blending and putting sloth claws where the bird feet were. For the healing brush tool it was useful in altering the original bird image, which served as the base for the whole work, to accommodate new animal parts. An example of this would be getting rid of the original bird feet by replacing it with painted on wood so the new claws would fit and doing touch ups on the fur.

The objective isn't the only part of the project. I had some strong aspects such as how well I used the healing brush. In getting rid of the wood the product looked realistic which was a good base for the new animal to sit on. A weaker aspect would probably be the job I did blending, in some areas it's easy enough to tell that parts are not of the same image such as the neck and lower claws. I should probably have focused more in those areas.  

Like every other project of the year some parts of the project were easier than others. The easiest part was definitely transplanting the head of the panda onto the bird, all it too was to properly size both images then carefully use the stamp too on the panda head and start painting in the same spot on the bird. The hardest part by contrast would have been using both the stamp and heal brush tools to get the sloth claws to connect to the bird body. To make it look good I had to play with the opacities of both and paint new bird parts over the claws to make it so they weren’t floating, painting over the claws easily and at some points made unnatural looking straight lines which were hard to iron out. Taking into account the harder and easier parts of the project I would probably not work with birds. Compared to other animals they have more fine details, such as their feather and thin feet, which requires someone to work more carefully with the two new tools.

Ai Curves / Corners & Curves Activities